If you are the favorite and not wining then you are.....?

Okay, I'll bite -- the "overdog?"

Losing, maybe? So why is it that the US is neither wining or losing the war in Iraq. Can someone explain it to me like a 6 year old. Are we in a tie or something? Is the War of Terror a tie?

SIN, I have a six-year-old and I would never want to burden his innocence with such rubbish.

Here's a version perhaps more suitable for a 12-year old.

Neither side reasonably has the expectation of completely defeating the other. Rather, each wants their political capital increased to the extent that they have considerable leverage in whatever reality exists in Iraq long-term. Thus, "winning" and "losing" will always be relative, in the same vein as "glass half empty" versus "glass half full."

The best scenario is that the U.S. completely leaves Iraq (victory for insurgents) and, at the same time, a coalition of powers presides over a relatively peaceful Iraqi populace (victory for the U.S.). In any case, victory is in the eye of the beholder.

When was the last time the US fought in a foreign civil war?

Viet Nam...
Before that, Korea...

Ummm, did you actually mean "winning" or "whining'?

What's the difference to an expat in San Pedro?

Didn't you go there--at least partly--to escape all that sort of thing?

I am making the assumption that all of this wisdom is being shared on websites in the middle east also. We all have to be on the same page if we are going to work this out.

Damn right Bobber! You know Arabic?

shhhhh....don't blow his cover.